Ebooks on a Plane: HarperCollins and JetBlue Announce Partnership

From HarperCollins:

HarperCollins Publishers today announced they will offer a selection of bestselling titles to JetBlue customers as the exclusive book content partner for the launch of JetBlue’s Fly-Fi content platform. Beginning today, customers on JetBlue flights equipped with Fly-Fi, the inflight Wi-Fi, will be able to read excerpts from more than twenty bestselling books published by HarperCollins, including Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton and Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean.
Each e-sampler will include buy buttons to allow customers to purchase any of the available titles from a variety of retailers. This offer will continue throughout the next year, and serve to further market the HarperCollins authors involved to a new audience.
Books from these HarperCollins authors will be available to customers as e-samplers via JetBlue’s Fly-Fi Hub, which is currently accessible on 35% of their fleet. Basic Wi-Fi is now available to customers for free, and higher-speed premium Wi-Fi is available for a fee. All HarperCollins-related content will be accessible for free via the Fly-Fi Hub.

All of this makes sense and very similar to a concept that I’ve been hoping to see the library and info database consider developing not only with the airline industry but Amtrak, VIA Rail, a metro and regional public transport authorities as more and more begin providing wi-fi to users. This is as much about providing content as well as promoting the idea that the 21st Century library exists beyond a physical location.
Btw, the idea of placing content where people can use it is neither new nor unique. In 2012 the National Library of Singapore began providing ebooks for library users while on some Singapore Air flights.
Also, HarperCollins was involved in an ebook preview/purchase promo with American Airlines last year.
See Also: Turkish Airlines Launches Digital Library App For Passengers (2014)
See Also: A Big Five Publisher (HarperCollins), a Major Airline, and a Bookseller Partner on Book/eBook Discovery Promotion
See Also: Audiobooks: Singapore Airlines and National Library Board of Singapore Announce Partnership (2012)

MORE About New JetBlue Service

• Educational Video Content From Coursera and Roxube (Cooking Classes)
  “10 e-learning videos from Coursera, including courses from Berklee School of Music, University of Edinburgh and Wharton Business School”
• National Geographic
• Time
• Fox

Coming in Jan 2015

• Material from Random House
• Videos For Kids From PBS
• Free Access to WSJ

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Digital Collections, Interactive Tools, Libraries, National Libraries, Patrons and Users, Publishing, School Libraries